It's Over: The FBI says it has hacked into the San Bernardino shooter's phone without Apple's help

Business Insider ^ | 03/28/2016 | Kif Leswing

[SeekAndFind]

Apple won a major victory in its showdown with the government when the US Justice Department (DOJ) abandoned its plans on Monday to force the company to write software to bypass iPhone security measures.

The Justice Department told a federal court on Monday that it no longer needed Apple's help to access data on an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters, and requested that its original order for Apple's technical assistance be withdrawn.

According to the DOJ, the reason it withdrew is because it was successfully able to access the data on the iPhone without Apple's help.

Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym vacated the original order.

Last week, the DOJ asked to delay a hearing over the issue because the FBI said it had found a "third-party" that may have been able to get into shooter Syed Farook's iPhone, meaning that Apple's help would not be needed. Monday's developments indicate that the FBI was successful.

The DOJ said in a statement:

"The FBI has now successfully retrieved the data stored on the San Bernardino terrorist's iPhone and therefore no longer requires the assistance from Apple required by the Court Order. The FBI is currently reviewing the information on the phone, consistent with standard investigatory procedures.

It remains a priority for the government to ensure that law enforcement can obtain crucial digital information to protect national security and public safety, either with cooperation from relevant parties, or through the court system when cooperation fails. We will continue to pursue all available options for this mission, including seeking the cooperation of manufacturers and relying upon the creativity of both the public and private sectors."

[DiogenesLamp]

Poor Apple got it’s @$$ handed to it in just a week.

[Blueflag]

256 bit AES encryption is highly secure, but not totally.

Brute force can eventually get in.

[dynoman]

Good.

[Blueflag]

Nope. It’s not like that.

There are different levels of encryption, and nothing is unhackable given time and petaflops.

[arl295]

Ahh poor wittle apple their wittle toys are no good now

[Innovative]

“it was successfully able to access the data on the iPhone without Apple’s help”

I don’t think this is a victory for Apple. It shows that anyone can break into Apple phones, without their help, so their phones are not as secure as they claim

[Ben Mugged]

Apple won a major victory

A Pyrrhic victory at best.

[jessduntno]

“It remains a priority for the government to ensure that law enforcement can obtain crucial digital information to protect national security and public safety...”

Something the Israeli’s know about and respect a little more than some of our liberal thick-skulled companies.

[DiogenesLamp]

There are different levels of encryption, and nothing is unhackable given time and petaflops.

It took a week. How many petaflops do you think it took?

And what does it matter when we are heading towards having a virtually infinite number of petaflops?

[lee martell]

Eric Snowden said weeks ago, that they did not really need permission from Apple, and were fully capable of doing their own hacking. Maybe Eric can come home if the next president is republican. Or one never knows, they may have a high status job to offer him.

[Grampa Dave]

What if NSA cracked the code last year and identified terrorist targets for wet work and monitoring last year within days after the terrorist attack at San Bernardino. Then, let MI5, DGESEF and the CIA wet work experts handle those terrorists.

NSA

MI5

DGSE

CIA

[DiogenesLamp]

I don’t think this is a victory for Apple. It shows that anyone can break into Apple phones, without their help, so their phones are not as secure as they claim

This is a horrible humiliation for Apple. They have been shown to be nothing but a bunch of Drama Queens that didn't really have a secure system in the first place.

But it didn't stop them from doing a huge "Chicken Little" drama play about it.

They just spread fear and loathing all over the internet, and now we see it was to no good end.

[I want the USA back]

So the encryption is worth nothing?

[chuckee]

Uh,oh. Hillary just flushed her iphone down the toilet.

[Nifster]

Sure thing as long as you hire an Israeli company and have the monetary resources of the Feds

[butlerweave]

They just discovered the password was written on the back of the phone

[Tucker39]

What they aren’t telling us is that they’d hacked into the phone within 24 hours of finding it. This whole months-long rhubarb we’ve watched between them and Apple was merely an attempt to strongarm Apple into making it easy to get into everyone’s iphone.

[eyeamok]

CORRECT,

The FBI has always had the info, Looks more like Netanyahu poking Obama in the eye. My Money says The Israeli’s went Public with the offer just to piss off Obama.

[justa-hairyape]

Anyone with half a brain has already retired from the US government. That is why the FBI had to hire the Israeli’s to crack the phone.